Though the federal government shut down at midnight Saturday, much of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened up on Saturday afternoon.
Laurel Creek Road and Little River Road near the park entrance in Townsend opened around 12:40 p.m. on Saturday. Cades Cove Loop Road opened an hour later.
Signs posted at visitor information stands and restrooms stated it is not a feasible attempt to prohibit all access to NPS properties and said, "Any entry onto NPS property during this period of federal government shutdown is at the visitor's own risk."
"All visitor services, including visitor information, restroom access, trash removal and emergency response will not be performed during the shutdown," the notice said.
However, the lack of amenities didn't stop visitors from making the most of their time in the mountains.
"There're no bathrooms, so that does make it a little hard. It would be really nice if they had those open, but you understand they don't have the staff to work and clean them after people," said Louise Merrill, a photography enthusiast from Georgia.
Though the restroom closures are inconvenient, the Park Service had portable toilets put in at the Cades Cove picnic area.
Of greater concern to Merrill was the limited emergency response team.
"You never know, you could be out there hiking and trip over a log and break you ankle," Merrill said. "The thought process goes through your mind I guess in a sense of way, you make the best of it and hope and pray nothing like that happens."
The park usually updates road closures on Twitter, but that account won't be monitored or updated during the shutdown, according to a Tweet from the official account of the National Park.
The last shutdown came in October 2013, so the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is not unfamiliar with government shutdowns.